tyranny

‘State secrets’ invoked over case of American targeted for assassination

By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, September 25th, 2010 -- 11:07 am

State secrets invoked over case of American targeted for assassinationIn a last-ditch effort to get a terrorism lawsuit dismissed, the Obama administration invoked a claim of "state secrets" on Friday, arguing that revealing details about efforts to capture or kill an American citizen charged with leading a terrorist group would endanger national security.

The suit, filed by civil liberties groups, charges that Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American citizen and Islamic cleric in Yemen, has been placed on a list of high-value targets the CIA would like to see dead.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights specifically charge that lacking threat of an imminent attack, efforts to kill al-Aulaqi amount to the targeted, "extrajudicial" assassination of a US citizen, which is illegal.

The “emperor has no clothes” fact is that the new face of unlawful global imperialism is the old face of 20th Century imperialists. As critical mass of public recognition builds, this time, the public will reject their loveless and mass-murderous empire-building.

The two paper-thin lies the 21st Century fascists use to promote unlawful war is that Iran threatens to destroy Israel and Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Both are quickly proven as lies.

As documented in the links here (and from other viewpoints here, here, and here), Iran’s President Ahmadinejad never physically threatened Israel and all inspections of Iran’s legal nuclear energy and medicine has verified all nuclear material is accounted for.

US-led forces added the murders of pregnant women to the recent murders of school children in Afghanistan. US military officials were forced to admit they lied in their report that Afghan “bad guys” murdered five civilians when Timesonline reporter Jerome Starkey went to the scene and documented that all evidence and witness testimony was that US-led forces murdered innocent civilians in a night raid. Unanimous testimony included Afghan government officials, police chiefs and survivors of the attack. The United Nations and New York Times investigated and corroborated Mr. Starkey’s reporting.

Note the NY Times misleading headline: "U.S. Is Reining In Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan" that is common is distract from the central facts of War Crimes on top of the lie of omission that the US armed attack and invasion of Afghanistan disobeyed two UN Security Council Resolutions and is an unlawful War of Aggression.

"The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a "high-value detainee" if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate."

Smedley Butler (and here) was the most honored man in Marine Corps history. He wrote and spoke that the purpose of US wars is millions and billions in profits for America’s leading “bankers, industrialists, and speculators.” War is a “racket:” a deception whereby its purpose of blood money from American taxpayers to “insiders” is always disguised as noble and necessary ventures to keep Americans propagandized into paying again and again.

General Butler in his summative book, War is a Racket, on the costs of war to ordinary Americans:

The strategy to rip constitutional restraint in the story was a false flag attack, which is a distinct strategy planned for operation by the US government to kill Americans, blame Iran, and launch a “defensive” war.

CameronFanSite’s Channel presents a 10 minute artistic explanation of how governments use false flag attacks to create public support to wage Wars of Aggression, also below.

Please let Mr. Obama’s lies in his speech sink in and touch your heart’s passion for justice. He said,

America has never fought a war against a democracy.

Oh? I previously explored this lie to explain three specific examples of US wars against democracies:

Congressman Dennis Kucinich invoked a procedural rule to help protect Americans from endless war to compel members of Congress to debate and vote whether to continue US war in Afghanistan.

The war in Afghanistan is unlawful in Orwellian degree; tragic-comic in its violations of US war laws (useful analogy to well-understood laws for individual self-defense here). Although the laws of war are crystal-clear, complicit corporate media lies by omission and commission to explain what these laws have meant for 65 years and how they apply to unlawful US invasion of Afghanistan:

The US is the principle author of the UN Charter, a treaty that under the US Constitution has equal power with all US law that requires all nations to eliminate wars of choice.
The only lawful uses of war are self-defense upon armed attack by a nation’s government (or imminent threat of such) and/or authorization of the UN Security Council (UNSC).

The American public is being played; duped into one unlawful War of Aggression after another. The criminal perpetrator of these war lies is a controlling faction of our own government. The evidence in this article will prove beyond any doubt that “war lies” is the accurate term; lies in Orwellian opposite of the verifiable facts, lies that cannot be reasonably construed as misinterpretations or well-intended mistakes.

These are what political historians reference as “Big Lies;” so massive and evil that ordinary citizens initially reject the objective evidence because they can’t imagine their leadership being literal psychopaths. Big Lies evoke sufficient cognitive dissonance for the public to embrace the Big Lie…but only for a time.

That time, now, is over.

“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

Congressman Ron Paul spoke on the House floor for 5-minutes on US policy to assassinate US citizens at the dictate of the executive branch based on “secret evidence,” US policy of torture that includes American citizens and without legal recourse, US policy of rendition to secret prisons, and unlimited detention.

He concludes with “emperor has no clothes” obvious observation that these acts are unlawful.

Dr. Paul states with “emperor has no clothes” simple fact that the “leadership” of both Republican and Democratic parties uphold these policies despite their Orwellian opposition to our US Constitution that our government and military have oaths to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

“The morons in Washington are pushing the envelope of nuclear war. The insane drive for American hegemony threatens life on earth. The American people, by accepting the lies and deceptions of "their" government, are facilitating this outcome.”

“Some other agenda is being served that we are not being told.” – Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts is one of the most respected conservative voices in the nation. He is the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

His latest article, “Road to Armageddon,” details the threat that unlawful US foreign policy is rapidly escalating into a climate to initiate World War III. Four paragraphs from his article:

What can we conclude when our government tyrants threaten war with Iran because the tyrants refuse to sell Iran 1 gram of medical isotopes worth $75,000, and contrive Iran’s legal production of isotopes for nearly one million human beings’ medical procedures as a cause for war?

There are a few rational conclusions:
1.Tell the truth about what’s right in front of us with powerful factual accuracy.
2.Refuse cooperation with evil, and those with arrest powers to exercise them for those who issue unlawful orders.
3.Respectfully ask for the tyrants to surrender power.
4.Offer a choice to the tyrants to either gracefully accept a Truth and Reconciliation process to confess all crimes and return all stolen assets, or face criminal and civil prosecution.

Our military, law enforcement, and government leaders must take a leading role as they have the big guns and can cause political exposure and enforcement of “emperor has no clothes” obvious crimes.

The yearly need of Iran for life-saving medical isotopes is less than one gram and costs Iran $75,000 to refine the fuel. Iran has stated they would prefer to buy the isotopes rather than produce them. The US could resolve the threat of war with Iran if President Obama made a speech today saying the US will allow Iran to produce it themselves under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a legal right guaranteed by treaty among nations including the US and Iran, or by the US selling Iran the isotopes.

The US refusal to do so and the US corporate media to not report this simple solution is revealing of a sinful and deadly war agenda that follows the propaganda path that led to unlawful war with Afghanistan and Iraq. The propaganda is tragic-comic: all we have for peace is one "anonymous" report with a misleading headline to psychopathically appear the US is taking peaceful action with no substantiation.

Iran will run-out of medical isotopes within a month; leaving nearly 850,000 patients without a critical tool for their diagnosis and treatment. Iran’s government repeated their request to buy or swap fuel (previous acceptance here), even though they are legally authorized to produce their own. The US-proposed delay for Iran to receive the enriched fuel after a wait of up to one year would kill Iranians in need of the treatment.

You would think that a Nobel Peace Prize winning President would jump at this opportunity to save people’s lives and ensure peace by accepting either option the Iranian government has peacefully offered.

But instead, Mr. Obama sent his minions to reject Iran. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

"Time and patience is running out,” Iran will face “consequences,” and “they have no interest in building international confidence that their nuclear program is for peaceful means.”

Robert Greenwald, the creator of Brave New Films, testified to the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Defense about war profiteering. He planned to show a 4-minute excerpt from his film, “Iraq for Sale,” as a more powerful communication than his mere speaking but was blocked by a majority vote of those in favor of the Iraq war.

The powerful and revealing 4-minute video is below.

Following is a 3-minute CBS News story of then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld admitting the Pentagon “lost” $2.3 trillion dollars:
That’s $23,000 for every US household,
or embezzling $1,000,000 from a military project 2,300,000 times,
or embezzling a million dollars a day for 6,300 years,
or embezzling over 600 million dollars a day, every day, for ten years.

Following that is a 4-minute video of President Eisenhower’s warning mixed with Rumsfeld’s Congressional testimony dancing around the Department of Defense (DOD) waste.

The Dalai Lama confessed to receive CIA funds in their revolutionary attempts to split from China. As US and Israel lying rhetoric for war with Iran escalate and echoed by US corporate media, as Iran is considered a main source of oil for China, as WW3 is a real threat given that WW2 sprung from a series of smaller occupations cumulating with a false flag attack on Poland and WW1 sprung from a single political assassination in a context of competing empires, the “chess masters” behind the scenes of politics might have more in mind than a simple visit between President Obama and an exiled religious feudal-system divine monarch (and here).

In analysis, Webster Tarpley provides context in your choice of a brief 5-minute discussion and a longer 26-minute group analysis below.